Along with the recent popularization of computers and the Internet, a huge number of document files have been made and stored in storage devices, which increases the necessity for a retrieval device capable of accurately retrieving a required document file at high speed. Particularly, from the viewpoint of security, more and more companies are realizing the necessity for a retrieval device for presenting a retrieval result of a document file, which satisfies a retrieval condition, only to a user having the authority to perform predetermined processing (for example, viewing, editing, etc.) in addition to the processing of retrieving a document file from a storage device which stores a huge number of document files.
As a retrieval device considered in terms of security, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-18309 discloses a database device which allows only a user having the authority to perform predetermined processing to perform the processing. The database device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-18309 is connected to an attribute management server for storing attribute information of a business server and to a database access controller for acquiring attribute information from the attribute management server via a network to manage data objects. When the business server accesses a data object (for example, a document file), the database access controller, which has a context storage unit for storing attribute information (for example, authority information) of the business server acquired from the attribute management server, controls the access from the business server to the data object on the basis of the attribute information stored in the context storage unit.
Moreover, the conventional retrieval device considered in terms of security generates index information associating group identification information, user identification information, and a document file with one another from authority information provided to the document file with respect to the document file provided with the authority information including the group identification information for identifying a group having the authority to perform predetermined processing and the user identification information for identifying a retrieving user and presents a result of retrieving the document file which satisfies the retrieval condition only to the user having identification information coinciding with the user identification information included in the generated index information.